


daughter of mountains (the flesh and bone remix)

by darlingargents



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Remix, Remix Revival 2018, Sith, Sith Are Not Trustworthy. Know This, Sparring, Training, let's kill the emperor! sounds like a good plan., minor Alderaanian mythbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 10:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16016327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents
Summary: Vader was Leia's father, too. To die by his side would be the greatest honour.





	daughter of mountains (the flesh and bone remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flesh of My Flesh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147840) by [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock). 
  * In response to a prompt by [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock) in the [remixrevivalmadness2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixrevivalmadness2018) collection. 



Leia Organa still called herself Organa when she was alone.

She loved Vader. She did love him. On paper, she was Leia Skywalker, and that was fine. But when she was in her room at night, after a long day of lightsaber practice or flight simulators or Force technique, she whispered it to herself.

“Leia Organa,” she whispered, with barely a breath escaping her lips. She didn’t know if there were cameras in her room, but she didn’t discount the possibility. The words were never audible, just to be safe. “Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Daughter of Breha and Bail Organa. Daughter of the mountains of Alderaan, sister of the skies and storms.”

She pictured the goddess of mountains from Alderaanian mythology. A mother figure, with a body formed of rock and snow, who protected skiers and hikers and explorers and anyone else in her territory. The times where the whole planet would worship her and her kin were long past, but Leia always had always taken comfort in the stained glass or woven icons of her throughout the palace in Aldera.

She wondered, on those nights, about her parents. Her real parents. If they were okay, if they were handling the turn of seasons that always came fast and furious up in the mountains. If they still missed her.

Leia missed Alderaan like a missing limb. Alderaan was mountains and snow and wind. Mustafar was fire and metal and pain. Mustafar was not her home, no matter how long she resided there.

Leia traced her real name with her fingers, on her thighs, her sheets, the wall beside her bed.  _ Leia Organa _ , over and over, as if it would be real again just by willing it into being.

~~~

Vader was like a storm trapped in a suit.

He advanced towards her like a force of nature, each blow that she blocked reverberating through her bones. She couldn’t stop him. All she could do was slow him down and hope she survived when she inevitably couldn’t keep up.

Of course, he pinned her within a couple of minutes, and Leia yielded.

“You’re afraid,” Vader said as Leia took a sip of water. She choked, spraying it across the floor, and she could feel his disapproval from behind the mask at both that and her performance in the fight.

“Of what?” she asked when the coughing subsided. “Of you? It’s been a long time since you scared me, old man.”

“Of yourself,” he said coldly. “Of your power. You refuse to use it. You hide behind incompetence and allow yourself to be intimidated by a larger and more physically powerful opponent.” She could practically hear him grinding his teeth — if he even had any left, actually, Leia didn’t know  — as he measured his next words. When he said them, it was slowly and with a hint of bitterness. “You’re more powerful than I am. If you had my training, you would have surpassed me. I would like you to reach your full potential, which is why we are doing this. Is this clear?”

Leia wasn’t sure she believed half of what he said, but she knew better than to disagree on something this serious. Correcting his parenting techniques as a precocious preteen was one thing. Telling him he was wrong about anything Force-related was dangerous, maybe even suicidal. “Yes.”

He nodded, and moved back to the other side of the room. “Again.”

~~~

Strictly speaking, Leia wasn’t quite anyone in the hierarchy of the Empire. She was Lord Vader’s daughter, but had no formal place in the complex structure of Imperial bureaucracy. She was still a teenager, but she knew lots of cadets started their Imperial careers at that age, so she didn’t quite know what to make of her continued training.

Though they hadn’t spoken specifically of it since Leia arrived, she knew that she was training to help Vader kill the Emperor. Obviously, the Emperor didn’t know that. He did know that Leia exists and that Vader was training her, so she’d wondered, over the years, what exactly he thought her purpose was.

She found out shortly after her seventeenth birthday. One morning after breakfast, she’d headed for the hangar of the palace to practice in the newer TIE fighter that had been delivered the previous week. The newer model was a bit faster, a bit slicker, and Leia was still adjusting to just how reactive the controls were, and since Vader was away she had no other training planned for the day, so she’d be in the fighter until dinnertime.

The servant had stopped her at the hangar door and handed her a holo with a message from Vader, instructing her to meet him and the Emperor on Coruscant. The courier ship was already waiting.

Leia packed a bag in less than ten standard minutes and boarded the ship as soon as she could get there, her skin humming with excitement. She hadn’t been to Coruscant since she was a girl and still living with her parents. Once or twice, her father’s senatorial duties had taken him to Coruscant and he’d taken Leia with him, to show her the ropes.

“You’ll take over from me someday,” he’d told her in the Senate chambers. “You have the mind of a politician. You’ll do better than I ever did.”

Clearly, that hadn’t happened. Leia didn’t let herself think about what her life might have been if she’d stayed on Alderaan, not anymore, but as Vader’s courier ship descended on the city planet, she let herself wonder, just for a moment. She’d have taken her father’s seat by now. She might have even lived on Coruscant, nearly full-time.

She would have been a completely different person. Leia can’t imagine the kind of life that version of her would have had. Once upon a time, it was her future, and she could picture it easily, but now when she tried it slid away like water in her hands.

It was night on the Emperor’s sector of Coruscant when they arrived. Leia found the room she was assigned to stay in and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She had a meeting with Vader and Palpatine in the morning, so she needed to sleep, but she wasn’t tired.

This might be it. Tomorrow, Vader might instruct her to kill the Emperor, and Leia knew she would do it without hesitation.

Tomorrow, Leia knew she might die.

She spared a thought for Bail and Breha. She knew it would hurt them, if they ever knew. But what she mostly thought was,  _ at least I’ll die by the side of my father _ .

Vader was her father, too. To die by his side would be the greatest honour.

With a smile, she rolled over and let herself drift off into sleep.

~~~

The Emperor radiated Dark power, and Leia could feel it washing over her like a wave as he moved close to her, leaning into her face. She was wearing a dress that Vader had told her to wear — skimpy, tight-fitting. Distracting. She didn’t think the Emperor would be distracted by her showing some cleavage, but his guards certainly would be. Vader, standing on the Emperor’s left, seemed vaguely displeased.

“Leia Skywalker,” the Emperor said in a thin, reedy voice. “Your power is impressive. Please, demonstrate.”

At Vader’s nod, Leia drew her lightsaber and ignited it. The Emperor smiled, and said, “Excellent, my dear! Now. Kill him.” He pointed at Vader.

Leia didn’t hesitate. She took a step closer to Vader, tossed her lightsaber into her left hand, and sliced off the Emperor’s head in a single motion.

For a moment, as the former Emperor’s head tumbled to the ground, there was absolute stillness and silence, and Leia could feel the shock radiating from the guards and the surprised amusement from Vader. Then the guards readied their weapons, and Vader’s lightsaber crackled to life as Leia moved to stand back to back with him.

The guards charged, and Leia fought harder than she ever had in her life.

Five minutes later, they were surrounded by bodies. The Force was flowing through Leia like it never had before, and she felt like she was on top of the world. Vader turned to her, holding his arm where it had almost come off during the fight. He’d need to get it fixed.

He would, because now he was the Emperor.

Unless Leia killed him. And then she would be Empress. Without consciously choosing to, she raised her weapon, and pointed it at Vader. He stared at her, radiating surprise, and… pride?

“You truly are my daughter,” he said. “Go ahead.”

She could be Empress, or she could lose her father. She lowered her weapon. “Not yet.”

She’d never felt this kind of pride from any of her parents. Vader looked like he would be smiling, if he could. “We have work to do, then. Come, daughter. Let’s look to our kingdoms.”


End file.
